I just visited it over the weekend and it was amazing.
Arrived in Amman on Thursday night and drove to Petra. Had no clue the ride from Amman would be almost as long as the flight from Dubai
Shortly after arrival we went to the site. On certain days they have "Petra by Night" starting at 8:30 pm.. They illuminate the canyon with thousands of candle lanterns and in front of the Treasury building they had hundreds of lanterns - amazing site. It takes about 45-1 hour to walk to the treasury (completely dark except for the lanterns). In front of the treasury again in the dark there were two Arabic folk music performances (one by violin and singing and the other flute). Apparently they only do this on “selected” nights but I suspect that the “selected” night is whenever you arrive – actually I don’t know but we heard that it was on Thursday and Monday and someone else said only on Friday and Sunday – well we went on Thrusday Night.
The following day we walked the entire site to the monastery, some 7 kilometers (at least that’s what I heard someone say at dinner at the next table – it felt a lot longer). We walked for about 8 hours (really). Had lunch at a restaurant in the middle of Petra.
Besides walking you can visit the site by horse back, carriage (horse drawn), camel, and donkey. There seems to be a division on the mode of transport in the order of the last sentence - each covering about ¼ of the route. The donkeys have the hardest job as they climb up to the Monastery. You should have seen the size of some of these people. Poor Donkeys!!!!!!!!!!! By the way, all rides are air-conditioned.
Lots of vendors selling visitors all kinds of stuff – including children “selling” rocks. These are scarce in Petra – only about a trillion of them (many rocks also).
On the second day we went back to see a couple of the sites we missed the day before. We began our journey around 9:00 in the morning and aside from the vendors, we were the only 2 people in the place (no exaggeration). Pretty pathetic for such an amazing site. It was nice to see that by the time we headed back there were more people making their way down – but still no more than at most 200 people.
The person who droves us from Amman airport to Petra mentioned that since 2000 there has been a big decline in tourism to Petra. Sad as it is such a nice place.
We stayed at the Movenpick right next to the site. Fantastic hotel, the hand carved and painted panels (ceilings and wall) were amazing so was the furniture, court yard, and staff. The food was good also (I’m not easily impressed or rave about food regardless of price!). Much better (by long shot) than the Movenpick in Cairo (crap)!
By the way, a friend of some of you on the forums (George Bush) was at Petra the day before we arrive. No sulfur small remaining by the time we got there!
The people were very friendly and from the youngest to the oldest spoke perfect English. There seem to be a number of other sites worth visiting in Jordan. Maybe next time.
